Title: Not As It Seems (3/3)  (Part One)  (Part Two)
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Dr. Horrible/Penny, Captain Hammer, Topher, Adelle, Sophie Alvarez, the ELE,
Word Count: This part ~2300, overall ~6300
Summary: The Evil League of Evil is watching, so beware...
A/N: Dollhouse crossover, although there aren't any specific spoilers for Dollhouse, just general knowledge of the show. This is for fanfic100 using prompt 080. Why? And... It's finished! :D Never done a chaptered fic before, I'm pretty proud ^_^

 

He’d never wanted to become a killer. It wasn’t intelligent or efficient; instead it was brutal and clumsy. So being told he had to murder to reach his dreams – it was a difficult choice.

It ended up being the simplest decision Dr. Horrible had ever made.

In fact, it barely counted as a decision. Captain Hammer practically made it for him – laughing and mocking Penny, acting like she was nothing, just another weapon in the war between them. Like she was just a piece of meat to be used once and cast away.

And as his enemy walked away with his arm around the girl of his dreams, Dr. Horrible just smiled. His heart didn’t break, because he knew he would get his revenge.

After all, the only thing between him and Penny, Dr. Horrible reasoned, was Captain Hammer. He was even more certain of that fact after the moment between them earlier – for that split-second that he’d been so sure that Penny was going to kiss him.

Captain Hammer was going to die.

--

Penny smiled up at Captain Hammer as they walked out of the Laundromat into the LA sunshine. She couldn’t help worrying about Billy, though; he’d looked so defenceless and unhappy when faced with her relationship with Captain Hammer.

Penny sighed. How had she got herself caught up in this mess? It wasn’t like her.

“Are you okay?” Captain Hammer asked.

“Yeah… it’s just…” She closed her eyes. What was she going to say? Oh, I just nearly kissed Billy and now I don’t know what to do? That’d go down well. “It’s nothing,” she said, shaking her head. “Look, I’ll see you tonight, okay?”

“I can walk you home if you like.”

“It’s fine. I’m sure you have more important, heroic-type things to do.”

“None more important than you,” he smiled, sending another stab of guilt through her stomach. He kissed her gently, pulling her close to him. “See you later then,” he said when they broke apart.

“Bye.” She turned and walked away, guilt twisting in her head. She turned the corner by the side of the Laundromat and walked up to a black van. The door slid open to reveal Sophie sitting inside.

“Hello, India. Would you like a treatment?”

“Yes, please,” Penny nodded. She stepped into the back of the van, placing her laundry basket on the floor, and sat next to Sophie. “I’m a horrible person,” she said as the van started up.

Sophie frowned. “I’m sure that isn’t true.”

“It is. I mean, I’ve got a lovely boyfriend, and what did I do? I nearly kissed Billy,” Penny groaned and buried her face in her hands, missing the smile of relief that briefly flitted across Sophie’s face. “I don’t know what to do,” she continued. “I really like Captain Hammer, but…” She sighed. “I mean, we’re not that serious yet, we haven’t… you know, but I know he likes me and he doesn’t deserve to be messed about.”

“And Billy?”

“He’s really sweet, and I know he really cares about me, and if I wasn’t with Captain Hammer…” She trailed off, staring blankly at the side of the van. “But I am,” she said fiercely. “I am, and it’s going well, and I’m not throwing it away for Billy.” She sat up straighter, filled with resolve. “I mean, it’s not like I know him that well, I don’t even know what he does for a living.” She paused. “I’m going to have to tell him, aren’t I?” she asked softly.

“Tell him what?”

“Tell him… tell him that it was a mistake, and I can’t… we just have to be friends.”

Sophie looked worried. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Wouldn’t it just upset him? You don’t want to lose a good friend.”

“It’s better than stringing him along,” Penny said glumly as the van pulled into the garage. She hopped out of the van and walked over to the lift. As she stepped inside, she turned back to Sophie and asked, “After my treatment, can we go and find Billy? The sooner I talk to him, the better.”

“I’ll be waiting right here,” Sophie promised.

As soon as the lift doors had closed, she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and rang Topher. “Hey, I think you need to know she nearly kissed Billy. Yes, I know that that’s a good thing… no, listen, she’s feeling really guilty about it... Look, you designed her to be Little Miss Goody-Two Shoes.” She rolled her eyes as Topher babbled in her ear. “Yes, I understand that, Topher, but she wants to go and tell Billy they’re just friends. Yes. Yes, you’ll have to do something about how guilty she’s feeling before her date tonight, otherwise she’ll screw things up with both men.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Well, I’d imagine our clients wouldn’t be too happy to hear things hadn’t gone to plan. Yeah, exactly. Okay, I’ll see you later.” She hung up the phone and walked over to the lift herself. This job was way to stressful sometimes.

--

“So, all I have to do to get my place in the Evil League of Evil is kill someone.” Dr. Horrible paused, looking slightly uncertain. “I’ve chosen my target, and believe me, he – uh, or she; it’s going to say secret thanks to the whole Superhero Bridge fiasco – deserves to be killed. The world will be a much better place without him or her. I’m not saying when I’m going to do it, but don’t worry; you’ll all know shortly after.”

He raised a hand to his forehead and fiddled with his goggles. “Uh, so, next time I post I will be in the Evil League of Evil. See you then.” He leaned forwards and turned off the webcam, and the screen turned to static.

“It looks like our plan has worked,” Fake Thomas Jefferson said smugly as he turned off the projector.

“He’s not a killer yet,” pointed out Professor Normal.

“He will be. When do you think he’ll strike?” Fury Leika asked.

“According to Rossum,” Dead Bowie replied, “Captain Hammer is opening a new homeless shelter with the Doll next week. My bet is he’ll attack Hammer then.”

Bad Horse dipped his head and stamped his back foot.

“That’s true,” Fake Thomas Jefferson agreed to no one’s surprise. “An audience definitely adds bonus points to his application.”

“As long as he kills, he’s in,” Bowie drawled. “He’s way ahead of the competition, there’s no point in hanging it out to do the maths.”

“We should do it by the book. In the interest of fairness…”

Fury Leika snorted. “We’re the Evil League of Evil! We’re not supposed to be fair.”

The other members of the League sniggered at Jefferson’s slip; even Bad Horse let out a quiet whinny.

“I see I am overruled,” Jefferson said stiffly.

“Let’s just see if he kills first,” Normal said. “Then we can argue over protocol.”

--

One Week Later

Sophie idly drummed her fingers against the computer keyboard. She’d been stuck in the van outside the new homeless shelter for most of the day, and was bored out of her mind. Topher had seemed to think that something would happen today, but he hadn’t told her what. So far nothing exciting had happened – just various people carrying in blankets and food supplies.

She sighed and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. She was halfway through replying to an email when the computer started bleeping.

“Oh, crap,” she muttered as India’s heart rate and blood pressure soared. She hit speed dial on her phone. “Topher? Are you getting this?”

“Getting what? …Uh oh.”

“Topher?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine, she’s just scared. Nothing’s happened.”

Sophie frowned. “She’s at the opening of a homeless shelter! Why would she be scared?”

“Because… the homeless are scary?”

“Topher, she voluntarily works with them!”

“Look, a bit of fear it to be expected in this engagement… and before you ask, no, I am not telling you the details. There’s nothing out of the ordinary here, and she won’t get hurt.”

Sophie pulled a face. She still wasn’t convinced, but he was probably right. Annoyingly, he usually was. She was about to hang up when she heard the screams.

“What the –”

“What is it?”

Sophie’s eyes widened. “There’s gunshots coming from inside. What the hell is going on?”

She heard Topher exhale down the phone. “Okay, it doesn’t sound great…”

“I’m going in,” Sophie interrupted.

“Whoa, no, no, you can’t!” Topher shouted back.

“India could get herself killed! She’s not going to be able to protect herself with this imprint!”

“You can’t go in there! If you mess this engagement up, you’ll be killed, I’ll be killed, India’ll be killed… They like killing!”

“Who does?”

“The people who employed us! You know I can’t talk about it…”

Sophie ground her teeth together angrily. “Well, I don’t think India should be alone with people like that, not with this imprint. It’s my job to protect her, Topher. If she dies, it’ll be me that Adelle comes after.”

“You don’t get it, do you?” he snapped. “This goes higher than DeWitt, higher than Rossum, even. Seriously, you know how Rossum are the height of corporate evil? Our clients make them look like the Salvation Army! We just have to let them do what they want and try to control the damage.”

There was another pause. “Look,” he continued more softly. “She will be okay. He wouldn’t hurt her.”

Sophie bit her lip worriedly. She could cope with risky engagements fine, but those cases she always knew what the risk was. The unknown was infinitely scarier.

“I guess…” she replied uncertainly. She was far from convinced, but Topher was usually right.

It was at that moment the computer started bleeping frantically, showing this was one of those times he was actually wrong.

“Shit!” she swore, flicking quickly between different windows on the computer. “I thought you said she’d be fine!” she said angrily, staring in horror at the numbers before her eyes. BP dropping, heart rate falling, pain sensation through the roof…

“He wouldn’t… he shot her?” Topher mumbled, half to himself.

“I’m getting her out,” Sophie said abruptly.

He sighed, sensing it was useless to argue. “Just… don’t get involved, okay? Don’t hurt anyone, or draw attention to yourself, and if you can’t get her out you leave her there, okay?”

“Fine,” Sophie replied, ending the call. She grabbed her pistol of the seat next to her and jumped out of the van.

She pulled open the driver’s door. “Johnny? We have some rescuing to do.”

--

Dr. Horrible pulled the dark goggles over his eyes. “And I won’t feel a thing,” he told himself quietly. He pushed open the large double doors and took his place at the table. He never thought he’d feel so hollow at his moment of victory.

“Dr. Horrible,” Fake Thomas Jefferson said smugly. “We, ah, have a surprise for you.” Dead Bowie sniggered quietly in the background.

Dr. Horrible felt his pulse rise. This couldn’t be good. “What is it?” he asked, trying to keep the nerves out of his voice.

“Come in!” Jefferson called. The door opened again and in stepped… Penny?

It can’t be… Dr. Horrible thought to himself. But it was Penny, as clear as day. “Penny? Penny! Oh god…” Dr. Horrible was out of his seat in an instance.

“Billy?”

“I thought… the Death Ray…” he froze. If Penny wasn’t dead –

“Looks like you aren’t a killer, Doctor,” Jefferson said smoothly. “You didn’t kill Captain Hammer, and you didn’t kill Penny. And as you know, those were the terms of your place here.”

“I can explain…”

“Let me. You failed the application process. And no one who gets this far can just walk away.”

Dr. Horrible felt his blood run cold. They were going to kill him, after all he’d worked for and now they were just going to kill him, and in front of Penny – he looked again at the woman standing in the doorway, a confused and worried look on her face.

“I don’t want her to see,” he said quietly. He didn’t want her to be tainted by the terrible world he had fallen in to.

“Oh, she’ll do much more than see,” Jefferson sneered. He pushed a button on a small tape recorder in front of him. A British woman’s voice rang out, “There are three flowers in a vase. The third flower is green.”

Dr. Horrible frowned. Was that supposed to make sense to him? Then he noticed Penny. She’d frozen at the words, and something had changed in her eyes.

“Penny?” he asked cautiously, stepping closer to her.

Suddenly she lashed out at him, punching him square in the mouth. He reeled backwards, shocked. “What are you–” Before he could finish the question, she’d punched him again, twice, and kicked him hard in the stomach. He doubled over, gasping for breath.

And then he heard the click of a gun being loaded.

He looked up to see Penny aiming a pistol at him. “Please…” he whispered.

She pulled the trigger.

He didn’t feel it at first, but then he saw a dark stain spread across his crimson lab coat.

Then he felt the cold floor against his back, even through his clothes, but he couldn’t remember falling down.

The room suddenly seemed so much darker than it had before, dark and blurred. Dead Bowie leaned down, grabbing the front of his coat and pulling him close. “This is what happens when you fail the Evil League of Evil,” he sneered, letting Dr. Horrible fall back to the floor.

Dr. Horrible was vaguely aware of the British voice ringing out again, something else about flowers and vases and colours, but he couldn’t concentrate enough to understand the words. He saw Penny collapse and he vaguely hoped she wasn’t hurt.

Then everything faded to black.